The Waiting Time
by danceDANCEdance
Summary: An idea about how Kurama and Hiei got assigned to work with Yusuke...basically.... SHOUNEN-AI! (complete)(Rating just in case)
1. Chapter 1

The Waiting Time

By: Keph

Author's Note: This takes place between when Hiei is arrested and Kurama and Hiei turn up again as a "helping hand" at Maze Castle.

Author's Note 2: THIS STORY HAS SHOUNEN-AI!!! IF YOU ARE OFFENDED DO NOT READ!

Author's Note 3: I call Koenma's place of business/work "Bureau of the Dead" or just the "Castle". What is it really?

Author's Note 4: Nope, don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Good show, though. :)

Author's Note 5: Review Onegai Shimasu! :) with sugar on top!

Kurama was waiting.

He sat at a bus stop and watched as bus after bus pulled up and away. The third time the same bus pulled up, the driver

opened the door, gave him a meaningful stare, then asked, "Hey, what're you waiting for, anyway?"

Kurama just smiled.

What would he tell the human? He was waiting for a portal to the Spirit World. Correction-a late portal to the Spirit World. He

sighed and winced.

The wound on his belly ached and itched. He could feel the slow healing, the looping of the skin, the reworking of the little blood vessels. His true form would have been healed by now-Shuiichi Minamino, on the other hand, required more patience.

Kurama rubbed a hand across his wound and gazed down the road. People passed. The buildings cast long shadows in the late hours. The watch on his hand ticked away.

Where was that portal?

It had been easy enough to make an excuse to his mother. "Study group." he had said, "Don't worry. I'll call if it runs late. I might even just spend the night." 

"Yes, Shuiichi." his mother had said and smiled.

She was much better now. 'A miracle', the doctors exclaimed. Kurama smiled. Miracle indeed. If Yusuke hadn't....well, it didn't matter. No regrets now. He would have gladly given the Orb of Baast his life, his soul, fed it with all the pieces of himself if he could save his mother.

"What's the point?" Yusuke had asked. "If you're dead, you're mother will spend the rest of her life mourning the death of her son."

But....

Would she have?

Kurama sighed again. Another bus pulled up. The door opened, the door closed. The bus pulled away.

Where was that portal?

How this Human World had changed him. Youko Kurama. Kurama. Shuiichi. He had so many names. Was it possible after all this time, he was just tired?

"Perhaps..." he said outloud, then caught himself.

"Perhaps what?" a voice said.

Kurama started and looked up with his bright, green eyes.

"Hiei?" he said, suprised, quickly standing and gasping as the move tugged on the slash in his gut.

"Hn." Hiei said at the look of pain that crossed his face.

"What," Kurama said, "What are you doing here, Hiei?" He peered into the red eyes of the Jiganshi and saw them narrow dangerously as though he had just said some stinging remark. At the moment he hurt too much for such retorts so steady, calm voice it was.

"Hn." Hiei said again and for the first time Kurama noticed the bandana around his head had changed. It was no longer the clean, white piece of cloth he was so used to seeing. Instead it was red and pulsing with ancient words of power.

"Hiei..." Kurama said, "What is going on?"

"Hn." Hiei said and Kurama was about to speak again when the Jiganshi actually went on. "What do you think, Fox? The Spirit World has sent me to bring you before Koenma."

"You?" Kurama's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Hiei's eyes looked away, his voice terse, "I don't know."

Kurama studied the smaller demon for a long moment. A bus pulled up, the doors opened, but even as the driver started to say, "Hey, you sure you didn't need a ride?" something shimmered for the briefest of moments, the barest of seconds, and Shuiichi Minamino was gone.

....to be continued....


	2. Chapter 2

Koenma was waiting.

He had folded his hands on the giant desk before him. He had a contract written on a piece of parchment. To his right, the Oni, George, looked nervously from the Ruler of the Spirit World to the doors of his office as they were swung open hard enough to groan on their hinges.

Perhaps Koenma could stay calm as Hiei stalked in, but George thought he would bolt the minute the seal they'd manage to place on his Jagan showed the slightest crack.

"Welcome." Koenma greeted.

"Hn." Hiei said and stalked to stand glaring fiercly at the Ruler. His eyes narrowed, but he gasped and fell to his knees as the seal around his eye lit up.

Kurama entered the room then and his eyes met Koenma's.

"You know well enough if we hadn't done it, he would have destroyed half the place by now." Koenma said.

"I wasn't going to ask about that." Kurama answered. "I was more interested in, considering," he touched his stomach unconsciously. "Why it was Hiei you chose to bring me."

"Is that all?"

"No."

Koenma sat back. "What else are you 'wondering', Kurama? Just who Yusuke is. Why he was able to defeat Gouki and Hiei. You're wondering if he is really human?"

"No."

"Then what?"

Kurama closed his eyes. "That whatever my sentance shall be, I request permission to bid farewell to my mother properly. I do not wish to make her sad."

Koenma was silent.

Hiei was not.

He had managed to roll up on all fours and he was laughing, the red light from the seal falling eeriely on his face.

"Kurama I thought you had gone insane. Now I am sure!" he roared and laughed bitterly. The sound died on his lips as he stood and faced Kurama with wide eyes, "Traitor." he said.

Kurama stared back at him.

"Boys. Boys." Koenma said, "I brought you here together for one reason and one reason alone." He peered from Kurama's pale human face and wide, haunted eyes, to Hiei's angry scowl. The words hung like a pendelum in the air. "And that reason is Judgement...." He peered at Kurama.

"And punishment."

....to be continued....


	3. Chapter 3

"Hn." Hiei said. "And what does the great Ruler of the Spirit World have in mind? Tossed into the deepest pits of hell? Slave Worker for the S-Classes?"

"No." Koenma said and lowered his eyes onto the contract on his desk.

Hiei frowned and grabbed it. "What is this?" he said, his eyes roaming across the sheet.

Koenma waited.

Hiei's eyes slowed, widened, and went still. "What is this?" he said in a deadly soft tone.

George, standing behind Koenma now, began to shake.

"Just what it looks like." Koenma answered.

"Do you think I would ever agree to this?" I'd prefer the bowels of the underworld! A thousand years of torture in the Spirit World dungeons..."

"Let me see that." Kurama said and stepped close behind Hiei to snatch the paper.

"It is a gracious offer." Koenma was saying as Kurama read the contract. "It is not a thousand years you would serve. Not even a hundred, merely the length of one human's lifetime."

"Not just a human!" Hiei spat and the seal was lit again.

That was enough for George. He bolted, screaming.

Koenma didn't bat an eyelid, he kept his eyes trained on Hiei as Kurama himself came to the end of the contract's terms. "Be wise, Hiei. Offers such as this do not come anyone's way that often. Consider...if only for the sake of your sister." Koenma said.

Hiei snarled.

"Yes, Hiei." Koenma continued, "We know about Yukina. What do you think would happen to her if you were in...what did you say, the "bowels of the underworld". You could possibly eventually use your jagan to watch her again, but what, I wonder, would you see?"

"Are you threatening Yukina?" The power rose like a warm wind. Kurama shivered. Koenma looked pale, but held his ground.

"No, Hiei. I am not. I would not. Not even for my purposes would I, but no other apparition would give you such a guanantee, now, would they?"

Hiei's mouth showed sharp teeth, but for the first time his eyes showed something Kurama had rarely glimpsed. Realitization, panic and the faint glimmers of regret.

Kurama stepped suddenly forward, stepping passed Hiei who didn't even glance at him. "My Lord, Koenma, please. You must give us time to discuss this."

Koenma tilted his head. "Time?" he said, "There is no time. Decide now."

"An hour. No more."

Koenma peered passed Kurama at Hiei who was exiting the room even as Kurama spoke. "Very well." Koenma said. "You have your work cut out for you, Kurama. You have read the terms?"

"Yes. Very closely."

"Good. Because this is a package deal. You, Kurama may be in for a lighter punishment, but for your past crimes your time would be more than this human body you posses can offer. The stakes are high."

Kurama nodded. "Double or nothing." he said and turned and followed after Hiei.

In the dim light of his office, Koenma leaned back in his chair and read the intellegence reports. Demon insects. That was troubling, but worst were the stirrings of the humans in the affairs of the demons. Especially a demon named Toguro.

Perhaps he should have told them the stakes were higher than they imagined.

They must sign the contract or...

Koenma sighed. Did he really want to finish that thought?

Answer: Hell no.

....to be continued....


	4. Chapter 4

Hiei stalked down the hallways of the Bureau of the Dead. Kurama walked after him, not saying a word. The seal on his Jagan must be taxing indeed if he didn't flit to avoid him and the words the little demon must know would be said.

The small demon suddenly stopped and Kurama paused behind him, eyes regarding him closely.

"Follow me." Hiei said.

"Where?" Kurama asked, knowing he would receive no answer.

Hiei walked out the gates of the castle and stood on the brink of the Spirit World, eyes gazing out into the distance.

Kurama followed his gaze. What was the little demon thinking? Kurama sighed. He should have called his mother before he

followed Hiei through the portal. He had let his suprise get the better of his sense. That was about to happen for the second time in less than a day.

"Fox." Hiei said. "I will agree to the contract."

"What?" Kurma gasped.

Hiei laughed. "You sound surprised, but it won't be that simple." He suddenly turned to the human form of Youko Kurama.  
"First remove this seal."

Kurama blinked. "Surely Koenma will....after the contract is signed."

"Do you think so?" Hiei said and laughed. He began to walk away.

"Hiei, wait."

"Koenma will not remove the seal. He never would have gotten the seal on had I been conscious. I....will not be able to watch my enemies if my Jagan is useless."

Kurama smiled slowly. That was a complete lie. "You are worried for Yukina."

Hiei didn't answer. He waited with his huge, almond eyes gazing calmly at Kurama.

Kurama sighed and reached out tentitively, until his palm hovered right above the seal. Hiei grunted and Kurama quickly removed his hand, shaking fingers that had gone suddenly numb. "It is a strong seal."

"Then your reputation was a lie, Youko Kurama? It was said you could break any seal."

"Youko Kurama does not stand before you, does he, Hiei?" Kurama snapped and Hiei's eyes went wide, then narrowed with dark amusement.

"I suppose not." he said and began to walk away. "You say I am worried for Yukina. Maybe that is true, but you, theif, have your own worries, do you not? The lesser demons witnessed your escapes with the Spirit Detective and your fight with me. Do you not think they will tell those with large enough brains to realize just who you really are? Then, human, who will protect your mortal mother if you are not there."

Kurama glared at the fire demon.

'A miracle!' the doctors had exclaimed. Miracle indeed, there were no such things.

"Very well." Kurama said, "But it will not be simple."

"Hn."

....to be continued....


	5. Chapter 5

"Do you think Kurama will get Hiei to agree to the contract, sir?" George asked. He had just returned with tea and cookies. "I suddenly thought you would like some, sir, aren't I considerate?"

"Hmmm..." Koenma had said, but he bit into the cookie set before him with enough relish to let teh Oni know he was forgiven.

"I don't know, Ogre." Koenma said and lowered the half-eaten cookie."It was a far-shot, I suppose, but a gamble that must be taken. Yusuke is not ready to face the foes of the Spirit World unaided."

"Sir, why don't you just get him some non-criminal type help?"

"Ogre? What do you think I'm running here? Do you realize how expensive good help is now-a-days?"

George frowned. "No sir," he answered. "You don't pay me a penny."

"Exactly!" The baby-rule proclaimed and opened his mouth for the next bite of cookie. All he got in the end was air as George the Oni did the only thing his wounded pride could muster. He stole the cookie from his boss's hand and popped it in his mouth.

He felt empowered, uplifted, victorious for one brief moment, then that moment was gone, and Koenma had clobbered him upside his pointed blue head.

Not for the last time.

"Hurry up, Kurama," Koenma said and set out to find another cookie.

....to be continued....


	6. Chapter 6

It was quiet here.

The wind blew and the stars in the approaching night sky shinned. That was it.

Kurama faced Hiei and said, "I know how to break the seal. It may hurt..."

"Get on with it, Fox."

Kurama flexed the fingers he had run over the seal. They were still numb. He thought of his mother. He thought of the look he had seen for a moment in the eyes of the heartless demon before him. "Very well." he said.

He suddenly turned and walked to the edge of the clearning in which they stood. The Bureau of the Dead was visible above the branches, but it was better here. The silence, the movement of the grasses and the trees close around him-it was a comfort he hadn't experienced in too long.

Kurama knelt. When he stood he held a red flower in his hand. It was small, delicate and fragrant. Hiei sniffed at the air and took a step back. "What is that? It smells of..."

"Do you want the seal removed or not, Hiei? It is a strong seal." He stepped 'til he was an arm's distance away from the suspicious demon. "What is your choice?" He held the plant out to him.

Resolve hardening, Hiei grabbed the flower. "Now what?" he demanded. The seal was working again, Kurama noted, the fire-demon must truly be desperate to do what was so against his nature: trust Kurama, the 'traitor'.

And Kurama was a traitor.

The fox closed his eyes. Traitor to his own kind, locked in a human body, helpless to the needs of his mother's love, his need to feel this wind in his hair that he had not felt in so long, the need to touch the trees and plants around him and feel them bend towards him like flowers to the sun. His needs....His needs didn't matter. He would unseal Hiei's jagan. He would do the only thing he knew he must do...save his mother. Her, at least, he would not betray.

"Hiei...?" he said quietly, not opening his eyes.

"Hn?" The voice held curiousity, uncertainty, suspision.

"Before I do this, you must make me a promise."

"I'll do no such thing."

"Promise me, Hiei, if something...if something happens, you'll watch my mother. You'll protect her..."

"What are you talking about?"

"The seal is strong." Kurama whispered, knowing he could hesitate no longer. The smell of the flower was sickly. "Eat the flower, Hiei. Now."

"Kurama..."

"Now!"

Kurama opened his eyes in time to see the glare Hiei cast him and enough to see the flower disapear into the little demon's mouth. Despite himself, Hiei grimaced at the taste. Kurama would have laughed had the situation not been so dire. "Remember your promise, Hiei." he said.

"What promise...?" Hiei began, but was abrupty cut off as Kurama transversed the distance between them and pushed the fire demon against a near-by tree. Hiei began to growl a warning, but that was when Kurama's lips covered his own and after that, he had

no words.

....to be continued....


	7. Chapter 7

"Shall we see how well Kurama is doing in his negotiations, Ogre?" Koenma asked.

George, the slightly damaged Oni, nodded painfully. "Sure, sir. I'll turn on the monitor."

"I do hope Kurama can find a way. Hiei is so guarded. So untrusting. I don't know if even Kurama has the ability to..."

Koenma never did complete his sentance. The monitor had flickered to life on Kurama and Hiei.

George scratched his head, "Funny. He doesn't look that guarded." he said.

....to be continued....


	8. Chapter 8

Kurama could taste the musky flavor of the flower in his own mouth now. He could taste Hiei in his mouth now.

Surpise had made the fire demon unresponsive enough that Kurama had worked his mouth open, running his tongue against the sharp incisors the little demon possessed, against his tongue and finally to curl around the flower there.

The taste of that flower was aweful, too pungent, overpowering and Hiei was coming back to his senses after the initial surprised. He was struggling against Kurama, but the larger demon used the weight of his own body to keep his down.

It was the only way.

"Stop...struggling...Hiei...." Kurama managed as his own mouth pressed the fire demon's.

"Kurama!" Hiei growled.

Kurama had just managed to break the flower in the Hiei's mouth as those sharp teeth suddenly came down on his tongue and provided the vital ingredient to break the seal.

Blood.

The salty taste filled Hiei's mouth and the fire demon gagged, but suddenly Kurama's hand was on his chest then his face. "Calm down...." he whispered and blood fell from the corner of his mouth.

Then, Hiei swallowed the first mouthful.

He gasped and without thinking, his mouth hardened against Kurama's, pulling at the tongue in his mouth, the lips against his own until he knew they were bruised, and still on he went.

Hiei knew Youko blood was intoxicating. Had heard the stories, the warnings, the disasters, but he couldn't help himself now. Mixed with the taste of the red flower was the taste of Kurama, rich and deep and he swallowed again and felt his own arms wrap around the fox's body, drawing his closer and closer until their bodies were sealed against each other.

He heard a sound escape Kurama's lips and didn't recognize it. Was it pain? Was it something else?

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

....to be continued....


	9. Chapter 9

Hiei opened eyes he didn't remember closing. He opened all his eyes. The jagan was wide upon his forehead, feeling as though it were burning. He touched it, felt the wet eye there and winced at the flash of pain the touch set off in his head.

The seal was gone.

Kurama had...

Hiei touched his mouth and the memory of the youko's blood made him close his eyes.

But where was Kurama?

With his eyes still closed, he used his jagan to find the fox. He was laying against the trunk of a tree. His eyes were closed, his mouth was slightly opened and dried blood stained the side of his mouth.

"Kurama?" Hiei said as he approached the green-eyed human.

Kurama didn't stir.

Hiei noted that the tree seemed to twist around him protectively as he approached and Hiei paused, remembering.

He hadn't been able to stop himself, had he? He glanced at the bite-marks on Kurama's throat and the one thought that was in his head was, "Kurama knew. He knew what would happen and he still...."

"Hn..." he muttered outloud. "Stupid fox."

He approached the tree slowly and pulled the unconscious form down. The tree bent towards him as though it would strike, but it was ineffective, a gentle thing, not a fighter. More like a mother.

Hiei glanced down at the form in his arms. "You're alive." he said. "I have no intention of being held to your stupid promises."

Then, he vanished in a flash of speed.

Behind him the blades of grass rose once, then fell.

....to be continued....


	10. Chapter 10

Kurama woke and it was morning.

He knew he was back in the human world even before he opened his eyes. For a moment he let the longing take a hold of him, make him slow the opening of his eyes just long enough that he could remember the wind of the spirit world and the gentle touch of plant and tree, of grass and flower against him.

He was still alive.

Opening his eyes he saw his mother sitting beside his bed. "Shuiichi. I was so worried. You were so pale. You must have the flu..."

Kurama smiled. "I'm fine, now, mother." he said.

She returned the smile and Kurama was amazed at the warmth he saw in her. He was always amazed at the warmth he saw in her. It was why he had given up everything.

"I'll get you some medicine from the store, Shuiichi. I was just waiting until you woke up."

"Thank you, mother."

She smiled and leaned towards him, touching his cheek. "You are such a good son, Shuiichi. What did I ever do to deserve you?"

Soon she left and Kurama lay alone in his room.

He felt weak. The seal had proven to be nearly his undoing. Hiei...

But it was done now. No regrets.

He sighed and closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

When he opened them again, there were two large red eyes staring down at him, a familair sword at his throat.

"Fool." Hiei said. "Do that again and I will kill you."

Kurama smiled, feeling too tired to do anything else.

He was waiting for the blow to land.

He was waiting for time to speed up and slow down.

He was waiting for the next time, the time he wouldn't be able to protect the ones he loved.

Hiei laughed and Kurama heard the sword being sheathed and the next moment he felt warm lips against his own.

"Hiei?" he gasped, he felt a hand on his belly, and a burning pain that made him gasp.

"Fool." Hiei said. Kurama touched his stomach. The wound was gone.

"Hiei..." Kurama began, but Hiei was gone. In his place was a contract with a single signature already down.

Kurama smiled and reached for the pen on his nightstand.

THE END!!!

So! What do you guys think? Please review. This was written quickly off a half-formed idea. It was fun writing! Thank you

for reading! :)


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